Are you Going on a Quest?
by jay-swan
Summary: A mysterious man keeps showing up at the library Loki's currently "working" at and he can't quite figure him out.


It wasn't exactly uncommon.

Loki would fairly often leave a clone of himself in Asgard while the original went on a... vacation of sorts.

These trips to others realms never lasted particularly long as making a clone leaves him with considerably less magic at his disposal then illusions or glamours would, but this one was turning out to be one of his longer ones.

He hadn't wanted anything terribly _exciting, _just to get away from being Odin for a short while.

He'd ended up working at a small public library on Midgard, which had a surprisingly large variety of books. It had all sorts of genres, including art, history (surprisingly fascinating, if a bit useless for him to know), biographies, all kinds of sciences (Midgardians were further along than he thought, but they still had a long way to go. And that was only on the subjects Loki knew about, humans studied _everything_), plays (Shakespeare's were Loki's personal favorite), politics (Midgardians could be so _petty_), a great deal of fiction, and more. Asgard's library, while a great deal larger than this one, had much less variety, and it definitely didn't have as much fiction.

So while Loki read through multiple genres, it was the fiction he kept going back to, and – if he was being honest with himself – was the reason he was still there as long as he was.

Oh, the work itself was tedious. But it really was a small library, and those who did come kept to themselves. Most just came in there and read like Loki himself did and they cleaned up after themselves.

Which was just part of what made the man so noticeable the first time he came in, and so easy to remember.

It was an average day, nothing special about it. Nothing to set it apart from any other. It was a bit rainy out, but not enough to justify needing to wear a hood. Fairly normal for England (Loki had found it to be one of the easiest places to blend in).

Loki was reading what was supposedly a horror novel when he heard the door open but didn't bother glancing up. When the door closed and there were no footsteps, however, he looked up to see a man with shoulder-length brown hair scanning the entire room and its inhabitants. Loki had spent too much time around guards and warriors to not recognize the actions of one when he saw it. Whoever this man was, he had been a soldier of some kind.

His eyes stayed on Loki the longest, but Loki was already looking back at his book, scanning the words to appear as if he were reading, but he was on guard and paying attention – not that you'd know it looking at him – to the man as he started making his way towards one of his bookshelves, a backpack over one shoulder.

You wouldn't know it just by looking at the man, but Loki could tell that the man was well-muscled and well trained, because he _was_ trained, Loki knew that for sure. He'd seen many similar physiques on Asgard, but on Midgard? Not so much.

Actually, the only one who Loki had seen with a similar build was the good Captain. (Admittedly, it was quite pleasing on this one, while on the Captain... not so much. Though, that might have more to do with the Captain looking a little _too_ like his brother.)

But the way he moved... it almost reminded him more of the Widow than anyone else.

He was reasonably certain already that this man wasn't SHIELD – they would be attempting to blend in, while this man had a certain... weary, on-the-road feel about him.

(...Perhaps Loki had been reading too many books.)

Comforted by the fact that this man wasn't SHIELD, despite his similarities to two of its precious Avengers, Loki stopped paying as close attention and let his guard down a little, but not all. One couldn't be too careful after all.

The man continued to browse all the shelves, before coming to a stop and suddenly going back to shelves he had already passed and grabbing books from all over the library, seemingly at random. He brought his stack of books over to an empty table where he sat – facing the door, Loki noticed – and set his backpack on the floor next to him. He pulled a notebook and a pencil from its depths and set it, open, on the table before grabbing the book at the top of his stack and flipping through it. And stopping and just... reading. It was as if he'd grabbed a book he'd already started reading and just found where he left off and continued reading.

And Loki would think that was the case, if it weren't for all the other books. Some of them, he'd do the same thing as the first before laying them down on the table, still open on the pages he left off on, before scribbling things in the notebook. Other books, he would barely read before he would start scribbling away. Often, with any of the books, he would flip around to different parts where he would keep reading or barely read at all.

Loki couldn't find any sort of pattern to it and it bewildered him. And he wasn't the only one, as others were also taking notice of his behavior and kept glancing over.

It wasn't long before he had all the books open and spread around him, occasionally flipping through one of them. There were a couple times where he get up to retrieve yet another book, where it would join the others.

It was the messiest he'd ever seen someone be in the library, although he wasn't _technically_ being messy... he was still taking up the whole table.

It almost reminded him of the few times they'd had college students come in here to study, though they'd only used, at most, three books.

He was only there for a few hours before he packed up all his things and put all the books back on the shelves (from what Loki could tell, they were even in the right spots) and left.

Loki watched him go before returning to his Jane Austen novel, who was quite an interesting mortal.

The man came several more times, never at the same time, and never for the same length of time. Very few mortals were so unpredictable and Loki found himself to be quite intrigued by this strange blue-eyed mortal (Loki found himself relieved the man had grey-blue eyes instead of Thor's blue eyes, he did _not _want to be think about his brother when thinking about this man).

Loki had eventually found some kind of pattern to the man, and that was the books he tended to grab. For the most part, he tended to stay in the non-fiction section, especially the history section. He even grabbed the, largely untouched, few American history books they had. He tended to only look at the history of very specific countries, however, and only looked at most of the rest very briefly.

Loki would admit to being very perplexed by this behavior, as he had only ever seen himself exhibit such behavior.

The constantly researching and studying... it reminded him of back when he was just starting out learning magic, or more recently, would research for a very specific quest that Thor and the Idiots Three wanted to go on.

On those few occasions he had any forewarning they were about to do something stupid, of course.

One day, the library was completely empty save for the two of them. Not unusual for there to only be one or two people, but this was a first.

The man had wondered off for yet another book (again in the history section), so Loki decided to get a peak at this notebook he was always writing in.

The page seemed to be a list of names, dates, and places. The dates were in chronological order, but otherwise, there seemed to be no pattern. There was the sound of almost completely quiet footsteps (a mortal would never hear them) stopping a few feet away and Loki looked up to see the man standing there, scrutinizing him as if assessing his threat level. As long he's okay with his clone completely disappearing then his threat level is quite high, and the man seems to be at least somewhat aware of this as he remains on guard, waiting for Loki to make the first move.

Asgardian strength or not, jumping straight to fighting is generally stupid, especially so in this case for some reason. So, Loki merely glances back at the notebook before asking, "Are you going on some kind of quest?"

The man blinks in shock but shows no other reaction, and Loki waits for a response of some kind, preferably a verbal one.

After a minute, the man answers, his voice croaking from what seems to be disuse, "Yeah, a quest for knowledge."

Loki watches the man step forward and snatch up the notebook. "I can see that much," he answers, amused. "But with how you seem to always look for very specific things, I'd almost assumed this quest would have a more... _physical_ nature to it."

The man regarded him as he stuffs his belongings in his notebook with a lot less care than usual.

Loki found himself sticking his hand out to introduce himself, "I'm-"

"I know who you are, Loki", the man interrupted. "Hydra had their own file on you. Gotta say you don't seem much the maniac bent on world domination everyone makes you out to be."

Loki probably doesn't hide his shock very well as his arm slowly lowers itself. Hydra? Some of the agents Loki'd used the scepter on had been secretly Hydra, but with Thanos in his head at the time, he hadn't cared much about it.

Now that he thinks about one of them had some memories of someone who could only be the man in front of him, who had considerably more life in his eyes now then in the memories he caught a few glances of. He remembered there being a brief moment of his subconscious recognizing a kindred spirit before the scepter squashed that thought.

"You... they called you the Winter Soldier, didn't they?"

The man's gaze sharpened into a glare. "Not anymore," he almost growled, "it's Bucky now."

"Bucky?" Surely he was joking.

"James Buchanan Barnes, apparently."

"Apparently? You don't know for sure?" Loki questioned, almost incredulously. What had Hydra done to James, because he was not calling him Bucky, that he didn't know for sure?

"No, I don't," James said with a look as if daring him to judge him. "They messed with my mind for almost 70 years, and left some stuff in there, too. Not like you have room to judge, Mr. Maniac."

Almost 70 years? How old is he? How did he survive tortures of the mind for so long? Perhaps he's enhanced in some way like the Captain. Any idea pops in Loki's head. If he's enhanced...

"You're right. I have no room to judge. It was mind control of a different sort that caused me to act the way I did in New York. I'm sure you understand."

If the look on James' face was any indicator, he could tell he was being honest and did understand. He made to speak, but Loki continued before he could. "Thankfully, Asgard is equipped to deal with such madness. I was able to use it to clear my own mind of any... leftovers."

It had the desired result. James' eyes grew wide, seemingly without his control, and his jaw dropped open a little.

"Tell me, James," he gave a little start at the name, "are you, by any chance, enhanced like Captain Rogers?"

James' face immediately closed off a little at the question, but there was dare he say, hope and longing growing in his eyes. "Yes, I am. Why...?"

"Since it deals with the mind, I'd rather not test out how it would do on the mind of an unenhanced mortal," Loki says, then hesitates, "that is... if you'd like to come with me to Asgard to give it a try...? I have very little doubt that it will work, but it's up to you."

James' mind seems to be going a mile a minute, the hope and longing growing with every passing second.

"What you're offering..." he starts slowly, watching the god very closely, "it's real?"

"Very," Loki answers truthfully, letting James see the sincerity.

"And I'll get to come back to Earth?" still watching closely.

"If you want," Loki says, meaning it. Truthfully, he wouldn't mind getting to keep James around for a while. He's obviously intelligent (and quite attractive, if he's still being honest) and he wouldn't mind seeing how the feared Winter Soldier does against Asgard's finest, namely Lady Sif and the Warriors Three. But if he wants to come back home, then Loki will take him himself.

James seems to take a deep breathe before, "Alright, let's do this." then seems to realize what he's saying as his face starts lighting up and a smile starts growing on his face. He really is a beautiful man. "Let's go to Asgard!" he says, getting excited.

Loki feels a grin start growing on his own face. "Let's go," he says, holding out a hand. "Maybe I can give a tour of the palace, if you want," he adds with a small smirk.

James seems to stare at him for a second before his cheeks take on a distinctly pink hue, much to Loki's delight, and accepts his hand with his own. "Alright," he says firmly, eyes alight with the wonder and joy of getting one's own mind back.

A feeling Loki knows too well.

It's time to go home to Asgard.


End file.
